Could Chicago teacher strike over evaluations using test scores have an effect in Michigan?

AP Photo/Sitthixay DitthavongPublic school teachers picket outside Amundsen High School on the first day of a strike by the Chicago Teachers Union, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012, in Chicago. The school is one of more than 140 schools in the Chicago Public Schools' "Children First" contingency plan, which feeds and houses students for four hours during the strike.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Could the teacher strike in Chicago, in part over reforms backed by President Obama, have an effect on this side of Lake Michigan?

About 30,000 Chicago teachers and other school employees walked off the job Monday in part because of a plan to link evaluations and grades, a reform planned for Michigan and other states.

The strike is the first major push back against Obama administration policies, and comes as the teachers unions are losing members and clout. But the strike could be leverage as Election Day draws near and the president needs union support to continue living in the White House.

Teacher strikes in Michigan have been illegal since the 1994, but the law is difficult to enforce. Efforts to add teeth remain stalled in the state Legislature, but can be resuscitated if lawmakers feel threatened, as they were a year ago.

The last Michigan teachers strike was in Wayne-Westland in 2008, following Detroit teachers walking off in 1999 and 2006.

But then-Michigan Education Association President Iris Salters rattled sabers in 2011, telling members to prepare for a potential statewide job action in response to a series of laws passed by the GOP controlled Legislature.

Chicago union leaders issued a release expressing concern about the evaluations, which they said could result in 6,000 teachers being fired within two years.

“This is unacceptable. We are also concerned that too much of the new evaluations will be based on students’ standardized test scores,” the release read. “This is no way to measure the effectiveness of an educator. Further there are too many factors beyond our control which impact how well some students perform on standardized tests such as poverty, exposure to violence, homelessness, hunger and other social issues beyond our control.”

Education Week’s Stephen Sawchuk reported that sticking points also include raises, including annual “step” increases given for longevity, which Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to eliminate.

Sawchuk reported that teachers were offered an 8 percent raise over four years, while the union wanted a 19 percent raise. Local reports credit a Chicago Public Schools spokesperson saying the average pay for teachers, without benefits, is $76,000.

Note that Emanuel was President Obama’s chief of staff when the Race to the Top school reform plan was set in place. While Obama has enjoyed support from teachers unions, members have not backed many of the president’s reforms, including the changes to evaluations and expanding the number of charter schools, which often hire non-union teachers.

While there has been grumbling , the Chicago strike is the first open rebellion against the Obama reforms.

“Deeply divisive school-reform ideas pushed by both political parties have put a strong focus on teacher performance and threaten hard-won seniority and job-security rights,” Sawchuk wrote.

“The financial crisis has left additional K-12 financing, the usual lubricant for advancing sweeping education policy changes, in short supply. And the unions themselves have faced difficult questions about whether to compromise and have a say in such reforms, or whether to fight them and deal with the ramifications later.”

Salters called on members to prepare for a job action that could include a strike. A letter advised employees that they could be fired, but said that "It is simply not possible to replace all or most school employees in the state…It is to, say the least, a time-consuming and expensive process for school districts."

That sparked a response from lawmakers, who wanted to beef-up the state’s law against teachers striking.

Public Act 112 stipulates striking teachers be fined one day's pay for each day they refuse to work. But a district must report a strike to the Michigan Employee Relations Commission, which has up to 60 days to verify such an action was taken. The commission must then conduct individual hearings for each employee before approving fines or employee dismissals.

HB 4466, which has been on the House floor for more than a year, would allow districts to consolidate the hearings and establishes $250-a-day fines.

And HB 4465, which is before the House Education Committee, calls for striking educators to lose their teaching certificate for up to two years, or even see it revoked.

“It is already illegal for teacher’s to strike in Michigan,” said Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger. “Whether the existing penalties are sufficient or additional penalties are needed is still being reviewed.”